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letter of Your Signory's which was more than six lines in length, and felt so much pleasure at the sight that I read it with greater care and attention than the short ones which I usually receive. Your Excellency, I feel, here tacitly confesses that she prefers the style which I have acquired on my journeys to that which she has learnt by going only to Rome! And since you are under this obligation to me, I will not this time thank you for your long and affectionate letter. Neither will I promise to write more often, as you ask, because, if you look, you will find that you have many more of my letters in your file than you can register of your own. But, in accusing me of neglect, Your Highness was evidently anxious to forestall my charges, knowing well that neither the pleasures and good time which I enjoy here, nor the pressure of overwhelming business, ever prevent me remembering one whom I love as my own soul. In reply, I must say that you have indeed beheld great things in Rome and at Urbino, and that you hoped to have seen more if the Catholic King had come to visit you or if the Most Serene King of the Romans had been able to undertake his journey to Italy, and the Diets had not determined otherwise. But how can these things in any way compare with my prospects in the near future, putting aside all that I have seen and done in the past, as is well known to Your Signory? The Most Christian King thinks that the Queen cannot bear a son unless I am present, and he has therefore begged me earnestly to stay with her for this event, in order that I may both honour the birth with my presence, and hold the infant at the sacred font. What greater honour could there be in this world

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than to be gossip and sponsor to a King of France! O what splendour, pomp, and glory will be mine! I shall not only visit Paris, the most flourishing University and populous city of the universe, but the whole of France, Burgundy and Flanders, and may perhaps reach Sant' Iago of Galicia. O how many new lands and royal sights I shall see on this journey! Your Signory and Madonna Emilia, who know so much of the country and its customs, will be able to imagine these. But what if my journey to France takes place, and the coming of the Emperor to Italy, which had been overruled by so many Diets, should be abandoned? In this case, the glory which you love will return to me, and the Germans, I think, may give up Diets in future, and eat and drink to their hearts' desire! I do not know if after this you can claim to be my equal, and if it will be possible for me to accept your invitation to Urbino so easily! When I return to Italy I begin to wonder if this earth will be worthy to bear me, if carpets will not have to be spread under my feet, and a baldacchino sent to meet me wherever I go! But, joking apart, I really hope to start for France in a few days, and am busy making preparations. When I return we must think of meeting, for I am as anxious about this as Your Highness can be."1 Mantua, 25th September 1507.

Whatever her moods may be e-grave or gay, impatient or gentle, stern or gracious-Isabella always interests and attracts us; but Isabella in high spirits, intent on some new departure and gaily challenging

1 This and the three preceding letters in the Archivio Gonzaga were first published by Dr. Luzio in a pamphlet entitled Gara dei Viaggi.

VOL. I.

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the world in her buoyant fancy, is altogether irresistible. Unfortunately she was doomed to disappointment, and this journey to France, to which she looked forward with so much delight, never took place. There were many difficulties in the way. Money, as usual, was scarce at Mantua, and the Marquis was reluctant to let his wife undertake so long and expensive a journey. Her presence was urgently required at home during his frequent excursions, and the negotiations that were being secretly carried on between the Pope and his allies might, at any moment, as Francesco well knew, involve him in war with Venice. So Isabella was compelled to put off her expedition, and devote herself to her husband and children. She could not even visit Ferrara, and assist at the splendid fêtes that were held at her brother's court, during the carnival of 1508, when an Eclogue composed for the occasion by Ercole Pio was represented, in which the shepherds of Arcadia paid a glowing tribute to three nymphs who dwell on the banks of the Po, the Mincio, and the Metauro, and Lucrezia, Isabella, and Elisabetta, who were there extolled as the most famous ladies of the age. For in January her little girl Livia died, and Francesco himself fell seriously ill, and showed the first symptoms of that incurable disease which eventually ended his life. At the same time, sad news came from Urbino. The unusual severity of the winter brought on a fresh attack of the gout, from which Guidobaldo had suffered all his life, and on the 11th of April 1508 he died.

The good Duke was only thirty-five years of age, but his sufferings had been intense during the last weeks of his life, and death came as a welcome

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release. "Why do you envy me so great a blessing?" he said, with a smile, to his heart-broken wife and weeping friends; "is it not a great good to be freed from this terrible burden of pain?" And a few hours later he passed away, repeating a favourite passage from Virgil, to Castiglione, who stood at his bedside.

1

Elisabetta was inconsolable. She nursed her beloved husband with the greatest devotion, and won general admiration by the wisdom with which she conducted affairs of state, and secured the peaceful succession of Guidobaldo's young nephew, Francesco Maria della Rovere. "Never was there so prudent and wise a Madonna," exclaimed her brother Giovanni Gonzaga, who hastened to Urbino to comfort his sister; "she is indeed to be commended in all that she does." Three days after his death, Guidobaldo was buried by his father's side, in the little church of the Zoccolanti friars, in the shady gardens which he had loved so well, and where, on that fatal night, six years before, he had first received the news of Cæsar Borgia's invasion. On the 2nd of May, a solemn requiem mass was held in the Duomo, and was attended by many princes and foreign ambassadors. A huge catafalque was erected in the nave, decorated with the late Duke's arms and banners, and his robes as Knight of the Most Noble Order of the Garter were laid on the bier, while his old tutor Odasio pronounced a touching and eloquent oration, which, Giovanni Gonzaga informed his brother, "was said to be very beautiful by persons who understand these things better than I do."2 Four days later, Isabella's faithful secretary, Capilupi, whom she had

1 Luzio e Renier, Mantova e Urbino, p. 182.

2 Dennistoun, "Memoirs of the Dukes of Urbino," ii. 79.

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GRIEF OF ELISABETTA

sent to express her grief and sympathy with the widowed Duchess, reached Urbino, and thus describes the gloom and mourning which now reigned in the once gay and brilliant palace :—

"I found this illustrious Madonna surrounded by her women in a room hung with black, with the windows all closed, and only one candle on the floor. She was sitting on a mattress spread on the floor, with a black veil over her face and a black vest up to her throat, and it was so dark I could hardly see, and had to be led up to her like a blind man by my cloak. She took my hand, and we both began to weep, and it was some time before her sobs and my own allowed me to speak. I gave her Your Excellency's letter, and expressed my sympathy in as few words as possible.. We spoke of Your Excellencies and your children, and of different subjects, and she told me the great kindness which His Holiness has shown at this time, and I stayed with her more than two hours. The new Duke was sitting among the women, but when the Duchess called him he rose, and I gave him your messages. He replied briefly, but in a prudent and sensible manner. He looks to me taller and slighter than I expected, but it was too dark to judge fairly. The Duchess speaks of him very warmly, and he treats her with the reverence of a son and a servant. To-day we spent more than three hours together, and I induced her to talk of other subjects, and even made her laugh, which no one had as yet succeeded in doing. I begged her to open the shutters, which no one had dared suggest, and I think that in two days' time she will consent to do this. She still eats her food on the floor. I complained of the black veil which displeased Your